The Goodness of God

Hello all! It has once again been about two weeks since I have been here to record my thoughts. Actually, it's been an eventful two weeks. The most important thing I need to record is the great miracle my God and Savior Jesus Christ did for our family on Sunday, January 29th. My husband's brother Ben and his wife Stacy invited us up to their house after church on Sunday, and we were there for the rest of the day (about 1:30pm to 8:30 pm). The children were playing, and toward the end of the day, they were down in the basement playroom watching a movie. The adults were busy visiting and working on the church website, which, by the way, is looking FABULOUS!!!! Check it out by clicking here. Anyway, around 8pm, I told my husband it was time to go... it was bedtime on a school night for the boys, and I had a headache. If you knew my husband and his brother, they have a hard time parting company. 15 minutes later, I said, "Let's go! I have a splitting headache!" I ended up in the car sobbing, because it felt like my head was in a vice. On the ride home, everyone was pretty sleepy. Long story short, we got a call from Ben at 5 am. He was disoriented, and asking us to call mom because something was wrong and he was calling an ambulance. Their house was LOADED with carbon monoxide, because the furnace (where the children had been watching the movie) had broken that evening, and the levels in the house were at lethal numbers. Stacy was throwing up and having a violent headache, Ben was slurring his speech and was unable to give 911 (where he works and is the supervisor) the phone number to his in-laws across the street, they had a hard time waking up their 5 year old daughter, and all of them had soot in their noses and around their mouths. The ambulance came and took them all to the hospital, where the doctor told them that if they hadn't woken up when they did, they would have been dead in a matter of 2-4 hours. And he couldn't imagine HOW they managed to wake up with the levels in the house as high as they were. But I know how!!! Thank you Jesus for looking after our family! We cannot imagine life without Ben, Stacy, and the kids! The tragedy would have been more than we could bear! We serve an awesome God who takes care of His people!

In other news, the school I work in is performing a musical tomorrow night called "My Town, My World". They have been practicing songs and lines for weeks, and tomorrow is the big night.... the same night as our annual church business meeting! Sorry, Pastor... I won't be there. :) It's okay, he already knows. Anyway, I took my boys to the musical last year, and they LOVED it, so I am treating them again to this year's performance. They tell me, "I wish OUR school would do stuff like this!" I will try to post a couple of pictures from the musical by the end of the week.

Also, on Feb. 4th, my husband observed his 19th spiritual birthday... he has been filled with the Holy Ghost and serving God for 19 years! WOW! Living for God just gets better and better as the years go by!

Before you go, please note the new link I have added to the side bar of my blog to a fun site called Web Sudoku. It is all the rage there days, like the Rubik's Cube was back in the 80s! Check it out when you have some time!

Well, next week is Valentine's Day! Don't forget to bless the one you love! Have a wonderful week!

Missionary report

Hello everyone! I'll confess right up front that I am feeling terribly guilty as I sit here posting on my blog... KNOWING that I should be doing dishes and cleaning up my house, and in the Word of God, and praying, and getting ready for my meeting tomorrow morning. Yep, this computer is my undoing, and I need to learn to WALK AWAY from it! What a time waster! It also contributes to my apathetic laziness when it comes to housework. Any number of people will tell you that I will go to the ends of the earth and do 8 million other things to AVOID doing the dishes! I HATE DISHES!

Anyway, I'm ranting. Sorry. Both of my boys told me this evening that they are not feeling well... one with a bad headache, and one with an ear ache and sore throat. Jesus help us. I have an important meeting in the morning that I can't miss..... if they are sick, I could be in trouble here.... they may be coming to the meeting with me!

Well, the reason I am here on this blog this evening is because my pastor told me I needed to blog about last night's tremendous service we had last night... and it was just that... tremendous! We had a missionary from Holland come to preach last night, Bro. Mike Tuttle.

WOW! He was here six years ago, right at the height of the Civil Union debate here in liberal Vermont. Holland already had legalized same sex marriage, as well as street drugs (in Holland you can go to a "coffee shop" and order heroin, marijuana, cocaine, etc. right off a MENU!!!!). He told us back then not to worry if the Civil Unions became law (they did). He assured us that it would not hinder God one bit, and that God would move anyway, perhaps in an even greater way, as that is what is happening in Holland. Last night, he told us that the young people (teens and young adults) are fed up with socialist liberal ideology in Holland, and they are starting to look for answers in God. He told story after story after story about how legalized drugs and legalized prostitution have ruined the lives of so many young people, and the youth are starting to see that this way is not the answer. He told us of miraculous things that God is doing over there! THEN, he preached. Yep, it was mega powerful, folks! He preached from Matthew 16, where Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" and Peter (then still named Simon) replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." That was Peter's REVELATION of who Jesus was, and it was his CONFESSION of who Jesus was. But Jesus also had a confession! He said, "You are Peter (no longer Simon) and upon this rock (Peter's revelation) I will build my church." Jesus called him a ROCK. Peter! The one who messed up so many times, and failed Jesus so much! Jesus believed in him enough to call him the rock (foundation) on which He would build the church! WE need to believe that we ARE who Jesus SAYS we are... a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people who have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light! HE CONFESSED IT! We need to BELIEVE it! He also called us MORE THAN CONQUERERS! Yep, Bro. Tuttle told us an excellent story to paint a word picture in our mind of what "more than a conquerer" looks like! He told us to picture two boxers in a ring. The bell rings and they proceed to beat the snot out of each other. One falls, then gets back up. They fight some more, the other one falls, then gets up. They have a cut over the left eye, a broken nose, blood running down their face from cuts, teeth missing, the right eye swollen shut, one ear bit off (lol), but they keep fighting. Finally, one falls down and gets smart... he stays down. They count to ten, and he's out. The other guy is declared the winner... the conquerer! He looks half dead, but he's the conquerer. They give him $10 million dollars, because he is the conquerer. He limps home, opens the door, and his wife is standing there, all dressed up nice like she's ready to go shopping. He hands her the check..... SHE IS MORE THAN A CONQUERER!!!! She got the check for $10 million without getting beat up! Jesus is our conquerer. He went to the whipping post, took the crown of thorns and the beatings, and went to the cross and died, so that WE could have eternal life without having to go to the cross ourselves. WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERERS through Him that loved us!



Great analogy! Great move of God. He told us that when we start believing that we are who Jesus says we are (more than conquerers), we will turn our state upside down in a DAY! I need that revelation... the revelation of who HE is and who HE SAYS I AM! He told us we are a revival looking for a place to happen. I wrote that in the front of my Bible, right above another confession... "I am hell's worst day!" I am hoping that Pastor will have our trusty webmaster, Dan, post Bro. Tuttle's message on our website for you to hear... (hint, hint, Pastor) ; 0 ) If he does, I'll post a link here.

Well, that about does it for me tonight. My hubby just called, and I asked him to swing by the store on his way home from EMT class to get me some ice cream (chocolate). He loves me! What a guy! I think I'll keep him! :)

Missed the 100 mark

Just me again. I was curious about how many posts I have on this blog, and if I had hit the 100th post mark yet. So I counted. Turns out that this right here is post number 127! Yep! The 100th post was back on October 18, 2005, when the Astros were totally stressing me out in the playoffs! It was fun to go back through my blog and relive some things I had forgotten all about. Blogging is just such a neat thing! I highly recommend it! :)

Some random thoughts

I know... I haven't been here to post in a while. I have a hard time posting for the sake of posting. If I don't have anything interesting to say, then why bore the general public with it? But I do want to say that I miss my mom. Mom and Ray left last Wednesday, heading for TN, NC, and FL. Not that I spent TONS of time with her, but it was nice to be able to just "pop in" for a cup of tea and a nice mother/daughter chat now and then. I can't do that now. The old adage is true... absence makes the heart grow fonder. Just knowing she's not here makes me miss her all the more. I LOVE YOU MOM!

In case you haven't seen it, our church finally has a COOL website!!! Feel free to stop by and check it out... maybe listen to a message or two in the audio library. www.lifeteaching.com . Our webmaster did an awesome job!

Well, my youngest son wants some snuggle time, and my oldest refuses to stay in bed.... grrr. Time to go.

Contemplate this

Here is the word of the day... saturated. Not in terms of water, but saturated in God's presence and glory. Tonight's message by Bro. Malone was DEEP and POWERFUL. God was speaking directly to the heart. I said, "Hey! That's exactly where I am!" Funny how God always knows "where you are". He was talking about the difference between a shallow, skin-deep relationship with God, versus being saturated in His presence, full of holy boldness, with the gift of God stirred up inside you so that NO SPIRIT OF FEAR can come against you. It was awesome. He's a good preacher!

Anyway, I am going to go pray about what I heard tonight, and get saturated! Good night!

Retirement arrives!

Well! After 43 years of cutting hair at the barber shop, Ray has finally reached a well-deserved retirement! Congratulations, Ray! He wanted to slip out quietly, but no one else thought that was appropriate. SO, on his last day of work, after Channel 3 and Channel 5 news cameras came and went, Ray locked the door at 5pm only to have his family, friends, and long time customers show up with FOOD AND BEVERAGE to celebrate! This was also my MOM'S last day of work for the Dept. of Homeland Security (formerly known as INS). So when she walked into the barber shop, another rousing round of applause went up for her! Here are a few pictures:


AT LAST!

I'M NOT sweeping the floor!

POLICE! Busted!

a bit of bubbly...

a toast

Bottoms up!

Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie

Patty, new co-owner of EX-Ray's

Tim chats with a long time customer of Rays

More police?

The grandkids playing with Trish's bucket of toys

Lots of goodies and good visit time for all

I'm kinda bummed that I did not think to get a picture of Trish and Patty, the shop's new co-owners, together. They are going to do a great job, I'm sure! We'll still go visit them for our haircuts!

My mom's retirement party is on Jan. 10th, and then she and Ray are hittin' the road! I'm so glad for them both! Retirement seems like a distant dream at this point in my life... but I know our time will come. Relax and enjoy, Mom and Ray! You both deserve it! I love you both! Happy Trails!

New Year

Hello, and happy new year (almost... it's currently 11:26 pm). We spent our evening as we always do, in the house of the Lord, worshiping, singing, foot washing, hearing the annual "state of the church" address, communion service, and pot luck fellowship following. And every year I feel the same way... I can't imagine spending this evening anywhere else! The rest of the world is partying and celebrating in a secular way; many of them with no thought of God and His hand in the upcoming year. I LOVE ringing in the new year with my Savior and my wonderful church family!

2006 ... only the Lord knows what it will bring. For us, I am looking forward to a lot of fun, a lot of growth in my faith, a lot of hard work cutting back our debt, and who knows what else? I am hoping to do some more writing for the ninetyandnine.com webzine, and looking forward to another excellent summer at church camp with the precampers! MAYBE... my husband will be taking BOTH boys to cub scout camp this summer, too! If the funds allow it.... not really sure about that...

Another fun thing that I am looking forward to... several people in our life group wanted to do the Endtime Bible study. So I borrowed the video tape version of the bible study from my mother-in-law , and we are going to get together and do that once the schedule gets back to normal around here. I love doing bible studies! My friend Petrina and I also discussed tonight at church that we need to start getting back together for our "God nights" like we used to do. It was just she and I... we would get together at one of our houses, pray, sing, and then put in a good preaching tape (usually Bro. Jeff Arnold... he's always good). We stop, rewind, take notes, pause for praise breaks, it's really awesome! We used to do it alot, but life got busy for us both.

Well, it's 11:42... time to go sit with my honey and watch the new year come in! He is currently watching "Madagascar" and cracking up! I like to move it move it, I like to move it move it, I like to . . . . MOVE IT!!

May the Lord draw you ever closer to Himself this year. Maybe make the decision to read your Bible through this year. Maybe decide to teach someone what YOU know about God...whatever you do, BE BLESSED!